Lille beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 to consolidate second place in
the French league and keep the pressure on leader Bordeaux on
Saturday.
Bordeaux, which will host Marseille on Sunday, topped the
standings with 43 points, six clear of Lille which stretched its
winning streak in the league to seven games.
Also on Saturday it was: Montpellier 1, Nice 0; Auxerre 0,
Boulogne 0; Nancy 0, Lyon 2; Monaco 2, Sochaux 0; Le Mans 0,
Lorient 3; Rennes 1, Lens 1; Valenciennes 1, Toulouse 3; Grenoble
1, Saint-Etienne 2.
At all nine matches, there was a minute of silence before
kickoff in memory of the casualties of the Haitian earthquake.
In Lille, midfielder Ludovic Obraniak opened the scoring with
a diagonal shot from the edge of the box after four minutes.
Florent Balmont outjumped the PSG defense to head in a cross
from Obraniak in the 52nd.
Franck Beria nodded in a headed pass from Yohan Cabaye to
make it 3-0 in the 69th before Mevlut Erding scored a consolation
goal for mid-table PSG in the 83rd with a close-range header.
In Montpellier, Souleymane Camara converted a rebound in the
58th after a handling mistake from Nice goalkeeper David Ramirez
Ospina.
Montpellier retained third place with 36 points.
In Nancy, Lyon defender Cris scored against the run of play
in the 80th, poking home a corner kick from Michel Bastos that
eluded the Nancy defense.
Maxime Gonalons secured Lyon's victory from close range in
the 87th.
Lyon kept pace with the top teams to move into fourth place
with 33 points.
In Monaco, Nene found the net twice to lift the host team
into fifth place, level on points with Lyon.
Nene beat the offside trap to dribble past Sochaux goalkeeper
Teddy Richert in the 84th.
In stoppage time, the Brazilian midfielder notched his 12th
goal this season to become the top striker in the league.
In Le Mans, Laurent Koscielny pounced on a loose ball to
flick it home after the Le Mans defense failed to clear a corner
kick in the 23rd.
Lorient doubled the lead in the 43rd when Le Mans defender
Ibrahima Camara diverted into his own net a free kick from Olivier
Monterrubio.
Monterrubio sealed the win in the 53rd, sliding home a cross
from the left flank by Arnaud Le Lan.
Lorient climbed to seventh place with 32 points.
In Rennes, Moussa Sow put the hosts ahead with a header in
the 55th, but nine minutes later Kevin Monnet-Paquet followed up to
equalize after goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez saved a header from
Alaeddine Yahia.
Yahia was red-carded in the 87th for a foul on Sow.
In Valenciennes, Andre-Pierre Gignac slipped a through ball
to Franck Tabanou who chipped goalkeeper Gregory Wimbee in the 16th
to give mid-table Toulouse the lead.
Johan Audel leveled for Valenciennes in the 44th, surging at
the near post to head home a free kick.
Tabanou, unmarked at the far post, made it 2-1 in the 84th
with an assist from Gignac before Moussa Sissoko fired home from 12
yards in the 87th for his seventh goal this season.
In Grenoble, Loic Perrin outpaced a Grenoble defender to tuck
home a cross by Emmanuel Riviere in the 30th.
Riviere added a second goal with a lob in the 39th on a
counterattack.
Last-place Grenoble pulled one goal back in the 41st with an
own goal from Cedric Varrault, who turned into his own net an
off-target header from Danijel Ljuboja.
Saint-Etienne moved out of the relegation zone with 19
points.
